Door stops may be used in a variety of settings to maintain a door in an open or partially open position. Additionally, door stops can be used to protect an adjacent surface, such as a wall or baseboard, from being damaged by the door or its hardware (for e.g. a door knob) when the door is opened too quickly.
Wedge-shaped door stops have been used to maintain a door in an open position by inserting the pointed end of the wedge between the floor and the bottom surface of the door so that one face of the wedge engages the door and the other face engages the surface of the floor. While effective, wedge-shaped door stops have been found to be inconvenient since they must be disengaged from the door and surface of the floor when it's desired to close the door and then reengaged in order to retain in an open position. Additionally, the floor may be damaged due to friction between the wedge-shaped door stop and floor surface. Furthermore, wedge-shaped door stops will not stop the door or door knob from slamming into and ruining an adjacent wall.
An alternative to wedge-shaped door stops are wall or floor-mounted door stops. Such door stops are typically elongate members having a first end that is attached to a wall, baseboard, floor or other mounting surface, and a second end having a mechanism, to retain the door, such as a magnet. Thus, when a ferromagnetic-containing strike plate located on the door is brought into close proximity of the second end, the magnet generates a holding force to retain the door in an open position. Although such door stops are more convenient to use then wedge-shaped door stops, the surface upon which the door stop is mounted can vary widely in shape and angle relative to the door and strike plate, making mounting of the door stop troublesome. For example, door stops are often mounted to baseboards running along the bottom edge of a wall. Such baseboards can vary in shape and size as well as being curved or angled where mounting is desired. In addition, there may be some instances where the door is either too close or far away from the mounting surface. In both situations, the strike plate will contact the door stop at an angle relative to the mounting surface resulting in a suboptimal engagement and therefore weak or ineffective retention of the door.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,454,414 discloses a solution to address the above-issue by inserting an angled c-shaped washer between the retaining mechanism and body of the door stop. However, the washer is only capable of remaining at one angle relative to the axis of the body of the door stop. In addition, because the washer is not secured to the body, it may be inadvertently knocked out or slide out due to repeated contact between the door stop and door. Finally, an accidental kicking of the door stop when walking past the door may cause the washer to rotate out of alignment with the surface of the door.
Therefore, there is a need for a stop apparatus such a door stop apparatus that may be used in association with a variety mounting surfaces, and which may reliably maintain a desired orientation for optimally engaging with the surface of a component such as a door to retain said component.
In one broad aspect, a mount for a door stop is provided, comprising a first oblique, truncated cylindrical base portion having a mounting face, a first engagement face at a first angle to the mounting face, and a plurality of recesses spaced about the first engagement face; a second oblique, truncated cylindrical adapter portion having a connecting face, a second engagement face a second angle to the connecting face, said connecting face having a first connection means for connecting with a door stop body, and one or more protrusions spaced about the second engagement face shaped and sized to be complementary to the plurality of recesses; and a coupling means for rotatably coupling the base portion and adapter portion.
In another broad aspect, a door stop is provided, comprising a body coupled to the means for coupling of the mount of claim 1, said body having a coupling end and a stop end; and a door retaining means located at the stop end.
In an embodiment, the present disclosure relates to a stop apparatus for use with a system that comprises a first component having a first surface, a second component having a second surface, the second component movable relative to the first component, where the first surface and the second surface are disposed at different orientations when the first surface is located in proximity to the second surface, and where the stop apparatus is operable to be disposed between the first surface of the first component and the second surface of the second component and operable to prevent the first surface from contacting the second surface, and where the stop apparatus comprises an elongated body and an adjustable setting mount assembly inter-connected to the body, the mount assembly operable to mount the elongated body to the first surface, the mount assembly being operable to selectively adjust the angle at which the body is mounted relative to the first mounting surface over a range of angles.
In another embodiment, the present disclosure relates to a stop apparatus for use with a system that comprises a first component having a first surface, a second component having a second surface, the second component movable relative to the first component, where the first surface and the second surface are disposed at different orientations when the first surface is located in proximity to the second surface, and where the stop apparatus is operable to be disposed between the first surface of the first component and the second surface of the second component, the stop apparatus being secured to the first component and operable to releasably engage with the second component with a retention mechanism, and where the stop apparatus comprises an elongated body and an adjustable setting mount assembly inter-connected to the body, the mount assembly operable to mount the elongated body to the first surface, the adjustable mount assembly being operable to selectively adjust the angle at which the body is mounted relative to the first mounting surface over a range of angles.
In a further embodiment, the present disclosure relates to a system that comprises a first component having a first surface, a second component having a second surface, the second component movable relative to the first component, a stop apparatus disposed between the first component and the second component and operable to prevent the first component from contacting the second surface, and where the stop apparatus comprises an apparatus as described above.
In a further embodiment, the present disclosure relates to an adjustable setting mount assembly for use with a door stop that comprises a base truncated disk comprising a mounting face, a first engagement face at a first angle to the mounting face and a plurality of recesses spaced about the first engagement face, an adapter truncated disk comprising a connecting face, a second engagement face at a second angle to the connecting face and one or more protrusions spaced about the second engagement face shaped and sized to be complementary to the plurality of recesses, and a mechanical fastener for rotatably coupling the base truncated disk and adapter truncated disk.
In a further embodiment, the present disclosure relates to a method for releasably holding a door in an open position and/or for preventing the door from slamming into an adjacent surface using a door stop assembly, the door stop assembly comprising an adjustable setting mount assembly and elongated member and a strike plate comprising a ferromagnetic material. The method comprises attaching the strike plate to the door, attaching the adjustable setting mount assembly to a mounting surface with a mechanical fastener, selecting an orientation for the adjustable setting mount assembly to compensate for an angle inclination of the mount assembly and securing the adjustable setting mount assembly to the mounting surface by tightening the mechanical fastener, coupling adjustable setting mount assembly and elongated member to form the door stop assembly, and engaging the door stop assembly and strike plate to releasably hold the door open and/or to prevent the door from striking the surface adjacent to the door.
In a further embodiment, the present disclosure relates to a method for configuring a door stop assembly, the door stop assembly comprising an adjustable setting mechanism and a body portion, the adjustable setting mounting operable to selectively adjust the angle at which the body portion is mounted relative to the first mounting surface over a range of angles. The method comprises selecting a setting for the adjustable setting mount mechanism to compensate for an angle of inclination of a mounting surface, and securing the door stop assembly to the mounting surface.